Take a Closer Look

• Spend a few minutes watching your tree. Write down all the living things you see. Are there squirrels? spiders? birds? Draw pictures of some of the animals you see.

• Sit by your tree and listen. Don't talk to anyone, just listen. What do you hear in or near the tree? Can you hear the branches moving? Are birds singing? Is a squirrel chattering to you from one of the branches? Write about what you hear.

• Feel the bark of the tree and describe how it feels. Make a rubbing of the bark. Hold a piece of paper against the bark. Scribble over most of the paper with the side of a crayon. Leave some space to write a few words about the rubbing. Write about how the bark looks and feels.

• Smell a piece of bark, a leaf, or any flowers on the tree. What do these things smell like? Do they smell like anything you have smelled before? Write about what you smell.

• Make a tracing of a leaf from the tree. Look for other trees with the same kind of leaves. Draw a map to show where these trees are.

• Wrap a tape measure around the tree and record it's width. Measure the width of another tree that looks the same as yours. Which one do you think is the oldest? the youngest? How do you know?

• Use a magnifying glass to look more closely at your tree. How does the tree and its leaves look different?

• Draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper. On the left side, write at least four things you learned about your tree by looking closely at it. Back at school, look in a tree book to find out what kind of tree you have adopted. On the right side, write four things you learned about the tree after reading about it.